Kiichi's Sketchbook

[kiichi]

Hi everyone! After rekindling my interest in art a little less than a year ago now, I've been slowly teaching myself how to draw, and although I've entered my senior year for a ba in sociology I'm still devoting any time I'm not studying to...well, studying (art).

I'm hoping to post every day, but looking at my schedule realistically it's going to be every few days or on the weekends, much to my chagrin. I have been in the habit of drawing every day though.
My eventual goal is to work in the animation industry, but in what capacity I'm not sure yet. I was looking into 2d animation, but it doesn't seem like there's going to be that much work in that field, so maybe 3d animation or storyboarding? What's definitely the case is that I need to learn my fundamentals, and even if I don't make it my career I wont stop absorbing every bit of it like a sponge. A moldy 'ol sponge.

Anyways, let's begin!

Any and all critique is more than welcomed! I'm here to learn after all, and I'd appreciate any advice/critique/scoldings y'all can offer

[kiichi]

Yesterday's and today's pages.

I really wish I could devote more time to art right now, but 'eh, not much I can do about that given my current schedule.
Some quick studies of busts, a quick sketch of a guy trying to hand out bibles in front of campus, and a few 30 second gestures.

[PNate]

Lovin the gesture sketches

[kiichi]

PNate - Thanks man!

These are mostly gestures from the last couple of days, along with practicing 2 point perspective today. Now I gotta work on these blasted papers. D:
I have to admit it's frustrating to spend so much time learning a subject I don't care for when I really want to be studying art, but things could be much worse. I have no real reason to whine, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel like whining lol.

Cheers!

[wannabeanimator]

Nice work, I look forward to seeing more...tks for your comments on my sb.

[kiichi]

wannabeanimator - Thanks man!

Here's a few from yesterday. I'd post the others but the look worse to me at the moment and I didn't bother to snap pictures of 'em.

[luthertaylor]

Hey Kiichi thanks for your words over on my sketchbook! I can't offer any words to you at the moment as you are breaking back into drawing so the most important part here is that you enjoy exploring your self expression. What I can say is when you are ready, start focusing on aspects you wish to develop rather than sporadic studies (not that they are sporadic at the moment) a lot of people get overly ambitious and want to study everything and get frustrated when they see lack of improvement. Focused study in areas shows the fastest improvement.
keep a little pocket sketchbook with you and get in the habit of drawing everywhere you go quickly. the more you sketch the better your sketches become. not to be confused with the more you draw the better your drawings become I would say lol. sketching is an aspect of drawing if you get what I mean. I'll keep an eye out dude!

[kiichi]

luthertaylor - Thanks man! Yeah I've been in the habit of carrying around a small sketchbook, but I find it very hard to make time to do more than quick life drawings when lately. I will try though. I'm very much looking forward to next quarter though, as I'll only be taking 12 units instead of 16. Lots more time to draw then!

Anyways here are some life drawings from today. I've been favoring pen lately because it's so quick.

[kiichi]

Ok here are some sketch pages for the weekend.

[Raymond Luk]

And you've never done gesture drawing before? ._. It looks very good! :0 So does that nude woman

[JoshB]

I'm lovin those gesture drawings man! You should check out Force by Mike Mattesi He does a good job on explaining finding rhythm in the figure.

[luthertaylor]

Nice update dude! I'd keep up with the sketching until you have some real serious time to commit to a fully focused drawing going for supreme accuracy.
drawing intensively for a while focused towards accuracy will actual improve your sketching ability as your eye will become more accurate.
keep it up dude looking forward to more.

[kiichi]

Raymond Luk - Haha, thank you! But yeah, I've been working on improving for a little less than a year now. I'm pretty dissatisfied with my progress so far, but not much can be done about it until mid december I'm afraid, when I have more time :/ Thank you for the encouraging words though!

JoshB - Thank you! I did some googling and his stuff, especially with his animation focus, seems right up my alley. I'm slowly working through the Vilppu vids, but the Force books are definitely on my list now.

luthertaylor - Thanks man! Like you recommended earlier I'm trying to focus on specific parts at a time now, outside of general life drawing/sketching when I am able. Thanks again!

Here's a few from the week, but mostly from this weekend.

[HunterKiller_]

Hey, thanks for droppin' by.

Looks like you've been working hard.
My suggestion would be to spend less time shading your drawings and focus more on the construction. The few perspective studies you've done are the right stuff, keep at it with those and apply them when you're drawing from life.

Another good exercise to do is spending as much time as you can on a single observational drawing, muster all your effort to make it as accurate as you can. This will train hand-eye-brain coordination to see and draw with accuracy.

[Ghast]

You're gesture drawings have a lot of energy to them. Its good to see you are also thinking about everything in terms of a 3d form when you are shading. Why not try doing some longer studies and really puth the values and the construction of the subject? You'll find you learn a lot more if you mix quick studies with long

[kiichi]

HunterKiller_ - Yeah I think you're right. I don't mean to, but there're a fair amount of times where I often neglect the construction unintentionally. Gotta work on that. I'll be doing more observational and perspective drawings for sure as well. Thank you!

Ghast - Thanks! It feels like gesture drawing is the only real thing I have a semi-secure handle on these days, but I've just gotta keep workin' hard to understand everything else. And I definitely will be doing some longer studies. Thanksgiving break is coming up, and although I'll be working on some papers and a project, I'll definitely have time to sit down and do some good art studies too. Thanks for stopping by!

Anyways here's a little bit from earlier this week when I was trying to understand arm construction via Vilppu, and a few drawings from last night.

[tentativesteps]

i really like the energy in your strokes, very vibrant and 'full' feeling, especially with the 3-dness of what you're drawing. its so diametrically opposed to mine. i feel hesitant, cautious teach me your secrets.

[kiichi]

tentativesteps - Haha, thanks but I don't think I'm qualified to teach anything at this point in time The only concrete advice I can offer is what I've been told, and looks like you already know anyways, and that's to draw using the elbow or shoulder. Also straight up practicing lines, like curves, straight lines, ellipses, etc. I tend to start these out of frustration, so they can be pretty relaxing at times. I still have a long ways to go though so take anything I say with a grain of salt

I didn't feel right responding without content, so here's a few messed up pages from today.

[kiichi]

Long time no see ca.org sketchbook! I finished out finals for this quarter and took a little less than a week to recover, but it's time to get back in the saddle and continue learning! Attached is one quick sketch I managed to do during a friend's party, and the remainder are a few pages from the past couple of days and today.

[kiichi]

Ok, here are some pages from today. Not as much drawing done today since I'm feeling kinda out of it. There's a bit of a family emergency going on, and coupling that with the rainy weather, I guess it's affected my drive. Oh well though, gotta keep drawing.

[kiichi]

Here's a few from today. Went through a part of Vilppu's head anatomy and trying to gain a better understanding of structure.

[kiichi]

Not as much drawing done today since it was kinda busy, but here's a few from today. I think there's improvement, but now it's time to sit down and do some serious studying.

Sorry ahead of time for the bad pictures.

[Sleep.less]

Hi
You've got good pieces in here. I can definitely see improvement with every post. The rythm and quality of your linework is good, just need to work on structure, expressing volume better. Keep up the good work.

[JamesSimons]

Keep up the studies and happy new year!

[kiichi]

Sleep.less - Thanks man. Structure, volume, and measuring are definitely weaknesses of mine right now, but I'm working on 'em

JamesSimons - Sorry for the late reply, but thank you! I hope your new year has been going well so far!


I tried to update a few weeks ago but found my browser saying this site had a malware/virus thing going on, so have been cautious. I haven't stopped drawing in the meantime, and although there have been some family emergencies and classes starting up again, I'm determined to keep drawing. If for nothing else, to keep my own sanity in check.

Anyways enough blabbing, here are some sketchbook pages.

[eroquii]

Holy cow! Seems like you're improving so fast! Keep it up man!

[lionheartGFX]

veeery nice progress and alot of hard work, keep bashing your head into construction try to feel the weight of the figure and the flow of the pose, think twice as much as you draw, every line must serve a purpose and like vilppu says you must know why every bump in the body is there and what function it serves so knowledge is power i hope to see more practice but still your line is changing very quickly is gaining more flavor and richness use that to your advantage use line weight to show where are overlaps and make planes clear what is in front of what, its all about the relationships between the masses i tend to think of it as a little game but that is just me haha cant wait to see the next batch of stuff work hard man!

[kiichi]

eroquii - Thanks man, will do

lionheartGFX - Thank you for the encouragement and advice

I did some gestures today and did another head/face study, taking more time in the construction phase. Definite issues are present, since I didn't recognize a slight tilt earlier, but the likeness is a bit better this time around...I think. I'll probably hate it in the morning lol.

[lionheartGFX]

i like that last one! the shading suggests form thats the way to go try making the sketch phase a bit lighter so you have space to build the drawing, otherwise it will look like a mess (not that a mess is bad, being loose and line friendly is good too) but it will help you get a better result, btw i totally get that about getting bored of your own stuff, it normally takes me around 4 hours to go from, hey i did good! to what the fuck is that? so it pushes me to making the next one better.

nice focus on the brow area its a very complicated place of the face and alot of the likeness is found there sometimes, keep studying how to abstract information from life and try to write down your ideas and thoughts on what is good and what is bad, rather than reading it its just so you can remember it better

keep on going!

[DizzySun]

Hi~ Your studies are looking pretty solid, nice! I like the way you handle a pencil, excellent line stylings. ^^